Own less. Live more. Finding minimalism in a world of consumerism.

How Minimalism Is Changing Entrepreneurship

“It is our belief that doing work you love should be accessible to anyone who is interested.”

Recently, I was fortunate to organize and present a panel at SXSW 2013 on the important topic, “How Minimalism is Changing Entrepreneurship.” I teamed up with three incredibly talented individuals (Courtney Carver, Joshua Millburn, and Ryan Nicodemus) to present the 60-minute conversation. Each have used minimalism to lay the foundation for full-time entrepreneurial work.

The result became a highly-relevant, practical, and inspirational conversation on finding work you love. And its hope-filled message continues to resonate even months after the original presentation—it ranks as one of the most-listened to presentations from SXSW Interactive 2013.

If you are interested in minimalism or entrepreneurship in any way, you’ll find great value in the conversation. You can find the entire presentation below. Then, join the discussion on Twitter, #simplework.

Highlights:

0:00 – Joshua Becker on the Importance of Minimalism

2:15 Foundation of minimalism for entrepreneurship

7:50 His specific definition and application of minimalism

11:59 – Joshua Fields Millburn on Cultivating Passion

15:10 Why finding your passion is crappy advice

18:15 The payoff of drudgery

21:35 – Ryan Nicodemus on Overcoming the Fear of Money

21:57 The human need for certainty

22:26 4 tips to making a successful transition to self-employment

28:35 – Courtney Carver on the Applications of Minimalism in Business

29:12 Overcoming 2 common challenges of entrepreneurship

36:22 Business is still conducted face-to-face

40:00 – Q&A

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And you can find more information about bringing me to speak at your local community event or conference here:Book Joshua to Speak.

About Joshua Becker

Writer. Inspiring others to live more by owning less.WSJ Bestselling author of The More of Less.

My favorite part of this talk was when Courtney said: “You run the day or the day runs you… Do your most important work first. And when you check email first, you’re doing everyone else’s most important work first… When you feel tempted in the morning, if you feel tempted to check email or Twitter or Facebook, just remember that seemingly harmless glance is really permission to the world to invade your brain.”

The concept she introduced of giving the world permission to “invade your brain” is powerful. I always subconsciously knew this, but I never acted on it. I’ve been much better at avoiding electronic temptations in the morning after she framed it this way.

It’s amazing to me that a few years ago, even thinking about making money off of a blog would have been unthinkable. But now, there are hundreds of people doing so. I love the power of the Internet and technology that surrounds it. Here’s to more and more people achieving financial freedom through the power of minimalism and blogging.